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American Morning
Winter Shows No Mercy; Will Democrats Pass Health Bill Alone?
Aired February 26, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Friday, February 26th. Glad you're with us. I'm Kiran Chetry.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans, in for John Roberts this morning, on a messy morning in the northeast.
Here are the big stories we're going to tell you about in the next 15 minutes.
It's still coming down. Now 3 feet of snow and counting in parts of the northeast. New York City public schools are closed and it is a travel mess. Even if you see sun right now, this could affect you.
That's right. We're going to have the latest travel warnings and delays as well.
CHETRY: And we're also going to talk more about what's next for health care reform after that all day summit yesterday convened by the president, failed to bridge the wide gap between Democrats and Republicans. Will the majority party still try to go it alone when it comes to passing a health care bill? We are digging deeper with our chief political correspondent Candy Crowley.
ROMANS: And all week long, we've been investigating our broken government. This morning, we focus on health care and the growing number of Americans who are employed and still can't afford to buy insurance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What sort of choices would you have to make if you had health insurance? What would you be giving up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My daughter would pay less tuition in college.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You couldn't pay your daughter's tuition if you pay for your health care?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could not. It's either one or the other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: "Broken Government" and working Americans who are too broke to buy health insurance, a CNN investigation -- straight ahead. But we begin with what is now a deadly winter storm, still dumping snow and sleet and flooding parts of the northeast this morning. Parts of the region have already seen three feet, and new information for people stuck at the airport. Dangerous conditions have forced American Airlines to cancel 42 flights this morning. Delta says 300 flights are cancelled in the New York and Philadelphia.
We're all over this extreme weather this morning. Susan Candiotti is outside, ankle deep, in Central Park.
First, Rob Marciano is here to tell us how bad is going to get -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Christine.
A perfect storm, no doubt about it -- a blockbuster for many folks. And some of the video that we're seeing now is pretty impressive. Let's go to Monroe, New York, where it was coming down in buckets yesterday and they just had a hard time cleaning up with the plows. There is no way you can possibly keep the roads clear or sidewalks clear for that matter.
On the other side of the Hudson, where that was pretty rain snow line for good chunk of the day yesterday. In Pleasantville, New York, a similar scene, but not quite as bad. The heavy, wet, snow is making things worse than if it were dry.
All right. Let's go to the radar and show you what we're talking about as far as what we have left with this particular system. It is sitting. It is spinning. It is not moving very rapidly, and it's wrapping in now, well, it's gotten rid of the warm air and now, it's all cold.
So, temperatures below freezing and we will see drier snow because of this. And we're not really seeing a drastic weakening of this system. So, we will see more accumulating snows. As a matter of fact, there are still blizzard warnings up for places as far south as North Carolina and western parts of Virginia.
Anticipate seeing four to eight inches of snow across the New York metropolitan area and parts of southern New York. And flood warnings are in effect also for parts of eastern New England. That's the other facet of the storm. Heavy rain, coastal flooding with big waves and damaging winds, and this thing is not over.
We'll talk more in about 30 minutes. Keep your snow boots on, guys, we got another 12 to 24 hours of this with more snow on the way -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. That's means you're going to be a busy man in the next 24 hours. Thanks, Rob.
CHETRY: All right. With the snowflakes blowing sideways, a lot of people are describing this as a snow hurricane in New York City. It's been coming down since yesterday at this time, hitting people in face (ph), thanks to the winds, making driving pretty treacherous as well.
Our Susan Candiotti is outside, experiencing of all of this firsthand. She's in Central Park this morning.
How are you holding up, Susan?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All pretty well, thank you very much, now that the sun has come up
We are starting you off here in Central Park because it's a beautiful place to be. Look, the snow -- it's about a foot high here, I would say, and coming across the little fence here, we can show you that a fair number of people, all things considered, are out here for a walk or a jog, taking their dogs out for a run, but it is also a potentially dangerous place to stay. In fact, officials are asking people to steer clear if they can.
Take a look up. I'll show why. Obviously, the place is filled with trees and this is a heavy, wet snow. It's bearing down on a lot of these tree limbs and, in fact, yesterday a walk to the park proved to be the last one for a man, a 46-year-old gentleman from Brooklyn who was walking through the park in the afternoon, a tree branch fell down on him and killed him instantly.
So, again, the commissioners of the park service here asking people to steer clear of here if they can because of what could potentially happened. In fact, another tree fell down on a New York City bus yesterday, fortunately, no injuries there.
But here, we're approaching Columbus Circle. I want to show you that the snow plows obviously have been out all night. We are seeing a little more traffic than we did before. You can see some cabs, an occasional bus. The plows are out but are having a tough go of it because as soon as they sweep the streets clear, they get covered up again.
And the thing is, we had a lot of wet snow yesterday. It was very slushy. But then it got a lot colder, so, it's very icy and slippery.
In fact, we are hearing that in northern New Jersey, that some of the bus service is suspended into New York. You heard about the flights -- at least 1,300 canceled just this morning between today and yesterday. So, commuting is going to be extremely difficult this day.
Public schools are closed. So, the kids are going to have a good time. They'll be out and about and so, we will be too. So, we'll be checking in with you again, Kiran, throughout the day to give you the latest in weather from the New York metropolitan area.
CHETRY: All right. Just a sea of white behind you right there and will be like that for several more hours as well. Susan Candiotti for us outside this morning -- thanks.
ROMANS: All this week, as you know, we've been focusing on a broken government in Washington. In a CNN/Opinion Research poll just out this morning, a majority of those surveyed, 56 percent, believe the federal government is so big and powerful that it threatens the rights and freedoms of rank-and-file Americans. Forty-four percent said they didn't see the government as a threat.
CHETRY: Some analysts, though, are already saying that yesterday's health care summit that we've been talking about this morning was just a televised example of how broken Washington is, whether they hash out anything remains to be seen.
But there were some moments that were decidedly unscripted. In case you missed it, here are some highlights, starting with Vice President Joe Biden who said there was some truth to the old joke about his job.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's easy being vice president -- you don't have to do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like being a grandpa and not the parent.
BIDEN: Yes, that's it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Next up: President Obama scolding Virginia Republican Eric Cantor for killing trees.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA), MINORITY WHIP: We don't care for this bill. I think you know that.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, when we do props like this, stack it up and you repeat 2,400 pages, et cetera -- you know, the truth of the matter is, is that health care is very complicated. These are the kinds of political things we do that prevent us from actually having a conversation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, perhaps, the most uncomfortable moment of the day, President Obama basically telling Senator McCain, his, of course, rival in 2008: get over it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: John, and --
(CROSSTALK)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Can I just finish, please?
OBAMA: Let me make this point, John, because we're not campaigning anymore. The election is over.
MCCAIN: I'm reminded of that every day.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: Well, I -- yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Those are just three moments in six sum hours of bipartisan discussion at the Blair House yesterday. So, what about the health care deadlock? Was anything really accomplished? And what does it mean -- what happens next? Candy Crowley is going to weigh in on that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, TV HOST: Given the fact that the parties have been at each other's throats on the issue, I thought they agreed on a surprising number of things.
OBAMA: What I'm going to do is I'm going to start off by saying here are some things we agree on.
REP. CHARLES BOUSTANY (R), LOUISIANA: I think we can all agree on that.
OBAMA: We agree more than we disagree.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we all agree on that.
OBAMA: All parties in both chambers should be able to agree.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I agree with that.
REP. STENY HOYER (D), MARYLAND: I think all of us around this table agree.
OBAMA: We agree on the idea of extending dependent coverage.
SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D), MONTANA: The main point is: we basically agree.
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
KIMMEL: That's good news. And I'm happy to announce that no agreement was reached.
(LAUGHTER)
KIMMEL: I watch some of the stuff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: How true, right?
CHETRY: Oh, yes.
ROMANS: Wouldn't it be great if they could all agree?
CHETRY: But that's not the case. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
They were all as we saw at one table trying to bridge the divide over health care. But President Obama's day-long summit certainly didn't end with a chorus of Kumbayah yesterday.
ROMANS: No, it didn't. It sets the stage for Democrats to pass a reform bill with little or no help from Republicans. So, where does health care go from here?
Candy Crowley, chief political correspondent and host of CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION." She's live with us in Washington.
Candy, what happens now? The president really did seem to threaten to move forward without Republicans, didn't he?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and they are already moving forward. I mean, a couple of things may happen here. First of all, even the Democrats on the Hill aren't exactly sure what the exact process is going to be.
There is some bickering about who has to go first on what because there's this whole idea of reconciliation that we keep hearing about, which is basically just a shortcut around the Senate 60-vote requirement. So, it goes around Republicans. And they can pass something with just 51 votes.
So -- but there are all these things that happen beforehand and the House has to get onboard. And so, the whole process is going to take some time.
Nancy Pelosi and on the other side, Harry Reid, have said that they want to do this before the Easter recess, which is the end of this month. There's also the president in the mix. Yesterday, we talked to David Axelrod who seemed to indicate that the president was going to take some ideas from the Republicans and perhaps incorporate them into something and there are some people on Capitol Hill, Democrats, who think, well, he may send up another bill.
So, the process has not been worked out yet, but you are perfectly right in your overall vision that Democrats and the president are very prepared to move on, and the Republicans are not prepared, so far as we saw yesterday, to given an inch on their feeling that this whole bill ought to be blown up and they ought to start again.
CHETRY: So, people sitting at home who have certainly got a front row to the process, as we call it, are wondering: is anything going to change? I mean, are we going to see a bill passed? Is this going to happen in the next month? Is the way health care done in this country going to change for me anytime soon?
CROWLEY: I think the bill will pass. I think it will contain some of those insurance reforms that most Americans can really relate to, perhaps putting a -- taking away the cap on lifetime benefits, also maybe extending the time that you can keep an adult child on your own insurance, the whole idea of preexisting conditions. So, there will be things that really mattered to folks out there.
I think the Democrats -- I know the Democrats have come to the conclusion that even if they have to move forward on a bill that may not be perfect, that's better than passing no bill at all. It's an election year after all. They've been spending -- they spent about a year on this, not quite, and they feel a political urgency and policy urgency to go ahead and move forward.
ROMANS: Candy, another political probe development, Congressman Charlie Rangel getting admonished for ethics violation in the House. How serious is this for him?
CROWLEY: Well, this is -- this is pretty light. The question is: was it enough for them to take away the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, which is a huge committee, a very powerful committee? The answer appears to be no, but as of last night, there wasn't much coming out of the speaker's office that indicated one way or the other.
This had to do with a trip that the congressman took with several other members of the Black Caucus down to the Caribbean. It turns that the person -- the group that sponsored that trip took corporate money. Some of -- two people apparently in Rangel's office knew about it and he did not. So, they are still, nonetheless, holding him responsible.
And even though this is a fairly light punishment, just a public admonishment, Rangel said afterwards, "I don't think it's fair to hold a congressman responsible for mistakes that his staff may have made." So, he thought it was too much. But it's fairly light in terms of these things.
CHETRY: How does that go over with constituents and with his fellow colleagues, "blame it on members of my staff"? I believe one of them was let go, right?
CROWLEY: Throwing people under the bus, yes. Well, it's a time- honored tradition for lawmakers. And I -- you know, as far as constituents go, Congressman Charlie Rangel is a pretty solid guy in his solid district. And I -- this is the kind of thing -- he's had some other ethics questions around him before. It has not proven to be any obstacle for his reelections.
CHETRY: Yes. There were some questions about the rent- controlled apartment.
CROWLEY: Right.
CHETRY: And whether or not you can use it as your office as well.
ROMANS: And some brownstone. And I think another investment --
CHETRY: In the Dominican Republic. So there has been issues. As you said though, he remains very popular with his constituency.
What do you have coming up on the show?
CROWLEY: As a matter of fact, we will look at this next, so we will have answers on Monday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is our guest and also Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader on the Senate side. So we will get both points of view about what's about to happen with health care.
CHETRY: Sounds good. Candy Crowley, we'll be watching by the way. Thanks for getting up with us this morning.
CROWLEY: Absolutely.
CHETRY: Candy Crowley, hosting "State of the Union" this Sunday morning, 9:00 eastern, right here on CNN on Sunday.
ROMANS: All right, your insurance company -- oh, yes, this one is your insurance company, even if you don't have insurance through AIG or any of its divisions. AIG is your insurance company, because, American taxpayers, you own a big chunk of it, $188 billion-worth to be exact. It takes a big hit and we'll tell you about it coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 19 minutes after the hour and that means it's time for "Minding your Business." You own them, so you figured you want to hear this. AIG just reported a huge hit in its fourth quarter, an $8.9 billion loss, much worse than expected. That's after a couple quarters of turning a profit. The insurance giant took more than $181 billion from you, via Fed and the Treasury, and that's why we thought you might want to know about it.
CHETRY: Ay-yi-yi, a $9 billion loss.
Apple, taking a page from McDonald's book, trying to celebrate a milestone, 10 billion served. Apple iTunes sold its 10 billionth song. I love it. It was Johnny Cash's "Guess Things Happen that Way."
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: How great!
CHETRY: It was bought by a woman in Georgia. She, by the way, got a $10,000 iTunes gift card. So she can buy all of Johnny Cash's collection and then some.
ROMANS: Ensuring another 10,000 downloads --
CHETRY: There you go.
ROMANS: -- for iTunes.
We warned you parents earlier, don't throw away your kids' comic books. John Roberts' mother, in particular.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Threw away one of his number ones.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: I know it. I know. The Dark Knight has now taken over the Man of Steel. The 1939 debut of "Batman" in Detective Comics just sold for a record price at auction $1,075,000 for a comic book. That breaks a record held just for three days. On Monday, a copy of Superman's first appearance sold for $1 million. Think of that as an investment. Just think of that as an investment.
ROMANS: But you didn't know about that back then. That's the whole point.
CHETRY: Of course not. They are a gamble. Do you think my Cabbage Patch Kids, the original 1982 version worth anything?
ROMANS: I am impressed you still have your Cabbage Patch dolls.
CHETRY: I do. I still remember the name, (INAUDIBLE) --
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: Poor little guy. He's bald and he smells like baby powder. I remember it. Just like my kids.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: I don't think it's worth $1,075,000, Kiran, but hold on to it just in case.
CHETRY: All right, well, help for the unemployed homeowners could be on the way. Gerri Willis is watching "Your Money" this morning with what could be a lifeline for people who are jobless right now.
GERRI WILLIS, HOST, YOUR MONEY: That's true. It could be a lifeline. We don't know if it's going to become a real plan yet. It depends on Treasury. But yesterday, the Mortgage Bankers Association proposed a new plan that would allow unemployed homeowners to stay in their homes.
This program, if it becomes fact, would help folks. If they are unemployed, the mortgage payments would be reduced for nine months to 31 percent of their earnings, their income. That includes any kind of unemployment compensation you're getting. The borrower would ultimately repay the mortgage in full. They would be put in the present Making Homes Affordable Plan, and that money from they owed for the mortgage that they missed in the previous nine months would be rolled into the entire debt. Re-evaluation every three months so you could see -- it's an interesting program.
You may be asking where the money is coming from. Guess what? The Treasury is being asked to pony it up. We don't know how much money that would be. I asked John Courson yesterday, the president of the MBA. He said, we don't know how much spending it would actually be. But obviously, they want to help folks who are unemployed. This is the big gaping hole in the Making Homes Affordable Program that did nothing for the people who were homeless. And that's the old fashion way of going into foreclosure.
The government is considering another plan though to help folks who are facing foreclosure. They want to ban foreclosure unless the lender gets down and talks turkey with the homeowner, has a negotiation to see if they could modify the loan.
ROMANS: But they don't a lot, right? You hear this from homeowners all the time. They say, I have not been able to actually talking and get into a modification program, because I don't know, A, who is servicing my loan any more or they're not answering my phone calls.
WILLIS: That's the beauty of what the bankers are suggesting because it gets the servicers out of the money. It gives them money to delay the process. And typically servicers have no power to forgive debt. That's an interesting thing.
We are still waiting for really great results in the programs. Some four million people were supposed to be helped by Making Homes Affordable. We have permanent modifications on only 116,000.
ROMANS: Could it be that there are just a lot of people in homes that they will never be able to afford with or without a job?
WILLIS: I think that's obvious. Yes. I think prices went through the sky, people bought them with the help of crazy loans, and now we are paying the price.
ROMANS: All right, Gerri Willis. Thanks, Gerri.
CHETRY: Thanks, Gerri.
Some amazing video we want to show you this morning of an avalanche as it happened. Check it out. This is a Slovakian snowboarder's first-person account of it. He is wearing a camera on his goggles during a run. That's when the snow began to crumble beneath him. Look at these pictures. He basically survived this, and his camera did as well.
Can you imagine that scary ride down the mountain?
ROMANS: We have cameras just about everywhere now. It's incredible.
CHETRY: I know. On the goggles. ROMANS: You can be a fly on the wall for so many things that you never would have seen even two or three years ago?
All right, it's three minutes after the hour. We will talk about the health care reform next moves. after a lot of talking yesterday and a bipartisan show of conversation, what happens next?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. A week- long examination of "Broken Government" takes us to Washington where lawmakers are spinning their wheels while health care costs for many skyrocket. And it's forced millions of people across the country to make the call to go without insurance.
ROMANS: Or to live with insurance and it simply doesn't help them. It's not just the unemployed, but a growing number of working Americans who cannot afford to be insured.
David Mattingly joins us live from New Orleans now with a.m. original.
David, some people are finding creative ways to get medical help without paying those hefty insurance premiums.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Cheap and easy health care is something that uninsured workers dream about finding, but here in New Orleans, thousands of workers may have a chance to do that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Marcel Rivera had to drop his health insurance about seven years ago. At $500 a month, he says it got too expense when he had other bills to pay.
(on camera): What sort of choices would you have to make if you had health insurance?
MARCEL RIVERA, UNINSURED: My daughter, Kayla's, tuition in college.
MATTINGLY: You could not pay for your daughter's tuition if you paid for your health insurance?
RIVERA: I could not. It's one or the other.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Rivera is one of an estimated 80,000 people living uninsured in New Orleans. He's among the working uninsured, stuck, making too much money to qualify for government assistance, but not enough to afford health insurance.
(on camera): But while the health care debate rages in Washington, Rivera and others like him are finding another option. Down here on Canal Street, there is a clinic that is quietly giving these uninsured workers something they have not seen in years, affordable health care.
It's upstairs, this way.
MATTINGLY: It's a short climb up an empty stairwell to what used to be Sunday school classrooms at a Methodist church, and this is where we find a clinic preparing for explosive growth.
(on camera): How many patients do you expect to have here?
LUANNE FRANCIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEW ORLEANS FAITH HEALTH ALLIANCE: We expect to see, the first year, about 1,000 patients and then growing exponentially.
MATTINGLY: Luanne Francis is the executive director of the private-donation driven New Orleans Faith Health Alliance, which charges working uninsured families a small fee to join, and then $20 a visit for the same basic care they would get at any other doctor's office, no tax dollars involved.
HERBERT SANCHEZ, UNINSURED: Oh, yes, I've been going every day, you know.
MATTINGLY: Uninsured welder, Herbert Sanchez, says he is already more than $30,000 in debt after emergency gallstone surgery. The clinic offers care his family would otherwise have to do without.
Surprisingly, clinic administrators do not believe whatever reform is passed in Congress will make health care affordable for many of the working uninsured anytime soon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to take a while. If they enacted it tomorrow it will take a while for awful this to roll out. What do you do?
MATTINGLY (on camera): I am not hearing a lot of optimism at this table.
(voice-over): But Marcel Rivera, who is on the clinic's board of directors, hopes affordable insurance is on the way. If not, he has to find a way to stay healthy for four more years, when he qualifies for Medicare.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: There are limitations to what the clinic can do. It provides primary care and wellness care, which is very important to the uninsured workers, but if they are injured or have some sort of serious illness, they have to go to the hospital. They go back to being uninsured, and with no safety net. And you can see -- you heard from one man what kind of debt that can pileup.
CHETRY: Yes, David Mattingly for us this morning.
It's shocking when people are forced to make those types of decisions. And we see it happen every day and it's one reason why so many people think it's a priority. ROMANS: Absolutely.
All right, the right and the left can agree on one thing that the government is broken. Tonight, Jack Cafferty wraps up a week of CNN investigations on "BROKEN GOVERNMENT." What can be done to clean it up. No more politics. Jack has all the answers.
"BROKEN GOVERNMENT: A JACK CAFFERTY SPECIAL REPORT." It airs tonight at 7:00 Eastern on CNN.
CHETRY: All right, meantime, we're crossing the half hour. Time for a look at our top stories now.
Three feet of snow on the ground in parts of the northeast. Cancellations at the airports are piling up, well over 1,000 expected in the New York and New Jersey area airports. Call ahead if have you a flight. Close to 400 between American and Delta alone this morning.
Our Rob Marciano is coming up with the latest, the totals, the delays and what we can expect for the rest of the day.
ROMANS: Yes, we have some new information about U.S. Airways and JetBlue, too, so stand by for that.
A fire that started overnight in an empty ocean front hotel in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire spread and took out an entire block of businesses. Firefighters say no one was hurt. It was raining when the fire started but it spread because of high winds from the storm blasting the northeast right now. Witnesses say the flames could be seen for miles.
CHETRY: And SeaWorld says it plans to keep the killer whale that killed his trainer Wednesday despite demands from some animal rights groups to free the giant creature. And that has these animal rights group up in arms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRID NEWKIRK, PRESIDENT OF PETA: If I were a parent I would run screaming from this place, not only because my child might see a trainer killed but might come away with the idea that this is all right, acceptable way to keep animals, and it isn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Now SeaWorld claims that there's no way they could actually put Tilikum back in the wild, saying that because he's been in captivity so long he would not survive.
SeaWorld has once again cancelled the whale shows today in Orlando and San Diego. And it is going through a review of all of its operating procedures. Also offering grief counseling for its trainers.
Well, this week we've been taking a look at gridlock in D.C. in our network-wide investigation, "Broken Government." And now we've finally seen the president and lawmakers sit down face to face on TV, across the street from the White House, talking health care, but the big question remains -- at the end of the day does that change anything? Does that move us any closer to getting health care reform passed?
Well, my next guests were two of the first to call for this kind of televised debate of more transparency in Washington. In fact, they're behind a petition that was launched by a bipartisan group of bloggers and political observers called Demand Question Time.
And joining me now from D.C., Grover Norquist, president of TAB, Americans for Tax Reform, and David Corn, Washington bureau chief from "Mother Jones" and columnist with PoliticsDaily.com.
Great to see both of you. Thanks for being with us.
DAVID CORN, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "MOTHER JONES": Good morning.
GROVER NORQUIST, PRESIDENT, AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM: Good to be with you.
CHETRY: So, David, it was a fascinating scene to watch unfold yesterday. You have the president basically the position of moderator, leading this debate over health care. What did you make of the summit yesterday?
CORN: Well, I think it was wonderful in some ways. I mean we compare it to what happened a few weeks ago when the Republicans held an issues retreat in Baltimore and the president came in started answering questions.
That was about an hour and a half long session and that was so gripping at the time that it caused people like Grover and I who basically don't agree on anything to -- to agree on this campaign on Demand Question Time to make these things regular.
Now yesterday's health care summit did not fall into exactly what we have in mind because it was very long, and it was also -- you know, it was focused on one subject. It was in the middle of this long legislative process, and I think each side came in worrying more about their positioning, and about -- you know, to some degree talking points.
And it wasn't as frank and I think as dynamic an exchange of views as we saw a few weeks ago or that we could have.
CHETRY: Right.
CORN: And the important thing -- and obviously the president called this because he thought it was to his advantage, and the Republicans agreed because they thought it was to their advantage.
CHETRY: Right. And let me ask Grover about that. Moving forward, what would you say the biggest accomplishment of this summit ended up being? NORQUIST: Well, that it happened at all. This is the beginning of a process. Look, the Democrats talked for four hours, and the Republicans got two hours. That can't ever happen again if you're going to have real question time and real debates.
This is done at the end of a process where the lobbyists have already written the bill. The bill's written. There's no discussion about what they're doing. It's about a bill that's going to be passed in a couple of weeks.
What we need to do is take this beginning and say in the future, starting at the beginning of discussions, let's have real debates, two teams, not three teams with -- we have two-on-one, four hours to two hours is not a grown-up --
CHETRY: Right. Well --
NORQUIST: -- approach to things.
CHETRY: Well, let's -- we did a fact check on this and it is interesting. If you take just the Democratic members themselves, they had 135 minutes. They GOP members themselves, 111 minutes. But then of course you throw in the president, and he wasn't shy to say, "I am the president of the United States so yes, I can talk." He got 122 minutes.
So when you add the Democrats and the president together, yes, they did talk twice as much or get twice as much talk time.
CORN: The original idea that we had was the president meeting with the opposition party. And also happening on a regular basis. It's not determined by either one side when they feel e it's to their advantage to call one of these.
The notion is that on a regular basis the two -- the president should meet with the opposition party, and you know, this could be down the road when the president is a Republican and the opposition party is the -- are Democrats to, you know, have a free throwing exchange of views on a wide variety of subjects.
Yesterday's event I thought was very illuminating. It got to -- you know, it comes at the end of the process, but it also illuminated the very fundamental divide between each side on its approach to health care reform.
And now the public can -- you know, can make I think better determinations about where each side stands. This can only help further debates on other issues if we do more of this and do it on a regular basis and maybe make it a little shorter, so people can actually watch the whole thing.
You know very few people have the luxury --
CHETRY: Right.
CORN: -- of taking seven hours out of their day to do so. CHETRY: Right. And also, Grover, what about the timing of it? I mean I understand it's tough to get that much time on television in general, but 10:00 in the morning, a lot of people were at work. It was on a weekday.
I mean, do you think that at the end of the day, people walked away from this better informed about where this debate is going on health care?
NORQUIST: Look, better informed than they were but as David has pointed out, this needs to be regular. Let's do it for an hour, an hour and a half every other week, at least once a month. Let's get this regularly done.
I mean the Democrats took advantage of this to announce Rangel's problems -- the ethical problems -- to sort of hide those because it was a big deal. If this was every second week, it wouldn't be a big deal and you wouldn't use it to try and hide other news.
And it will change who the two parties nominate for president in the future because one of the questions you'll have to ask is, would the guy that you think ought to be the Republican or Democratic nominee be able to stand up to questioning.
(CROSSTALK)
NORQUIST: That will get you different presidents.
CORN: Or the women.
CHETRY: Very interesting.
NORQUIST: Yes, correct.
CORN: And then if people are interested in this, you know, we do have a Web site set up with a very unimaginative title. It's DemandQuestionTime.com.
CHETRY: I was going to give you your plug. I -- you said people can go there. They can sign on. They can endorse Demand Question Time petition at DemandQuestionTime.com.
You know it's a great theory and I think people do want to hear more from their elected leaders.
Grover Norquist and David Corn, great to talk to both of you this morning. Thanks.
NORQUIST: Thank you.
CORN: Thanks for having us.
ROMANS: All right, in our special series, "Building Up America," finding opportunity in hard times. We're going to take you to a program at Austin Community College that gives kids who are down and out, kids who really need a chance -- a second chance. Tom Foreman is going to have that for us. Great story coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Just into CNN, newly released economic numbers about GDP, Gross Domestic Product. That is how strong the economy is. It shows the economy grew 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. That's a bit stronger than what's first estimated.
This figure is revised several times. We're going to get another revision again next month, as more data becomes available. But what this tells us is that the economy was quite strong in the end of last year after a very, very long period of weakness.
The question is, how long does it last? Of course, Kyra.
CHETRY: Maybe they don't expect it to carry over into this year?
ROMANS: I don't know. Well, we'll have to see, but it showed you that something was happening late last year.
CHETRY: Cash for Clunkers?
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: No, this is beyond -- yes. It's like -- it was a lot of different things. But we'll see if it lasts.
CHETRY: All right. Well, at least some -- one bright spot. Economically, right?
ROMANS: Yes. Less stimulus money, don't forget.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROMANS: Low interest rates -- yes.
CHETRY: All right. A lot of things that they were trying to do to juice the economy. We'll see what happens. But meanwhile all this week we've been bringing you stories about how everyday people are doing their best to build up America. And today is really a great example of building from the ground, though.
ROMANS: It's a program teaching troubled kids the basics of construction so that they can have a good foundation.
Tom Foreman is live outside the CNN Express in Austin, finding some fantastic stories for us about, you know, good opportunities in hard times.
Hi, Tom.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, how are you doing this morning? You know, you bring up an interesting point here. Unemployment actually is something that hurts all of us. You don't think of it that way if you have a job, you think you're OK, but the truth is, unemployment can depress wages, it can affect your tax base. It can affect all sorts of things when people are out of work.
And the one thing you really don't want is chronic unemployment, people who lose a job and simply can't get another one. There is a critical time for this. Right around the time when you're getting out of high school through the college years, up into your mid-20s. If you don't get into a pattern of working then, you run the risk of becoming a chronically unemployed person.
And truly that hurts us all. That's what this program is all about solving.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN (voice-over): Out on the east edge of Austin, rebuilding America starts with rebuilding lives.
Meet the latest class of the Skill Point Alliance Construction Gateway. Funded by city and county tax dollars, this is an innovative five-week training program to turn the unemployable into the employed.
(On camera): It's a big deal to you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. A very big deal. This is the beginning of the rest of my life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm excited, even though it's really intense.
FOREMAN (voice-over): The target is individuals over the age of 18 who ought to be entering the workforce but who have little hope of doing so because they dropped out of school or wound up in jail or had some other problem.
Sean Gomez, for example, had been in and out of prison for robbery by the time he was 25.
SEAN GOMEZ, GATEWAY CONSTRUCTION: There was no work. It was nonexistent, I mean, to me. For people like myself.
SYLVESTRE VILLARREAL, SKILLPOINT ALLIANCE: Yet if you follow the basics and always do the basic right, everything else falls in place.
FOREMAN: But then he ran into Sylvestre Villarreal, who recruits students for the Construction Gateway Program, scouring homeless shelters, unemployment lines.
VILLARREAL: I look for two things in a student that I feel that will benefit from this, and the second one, which is just as important, is an individual that is going to be a good employee.
FOREMAN: Once in, they are taught the boot camp basics of construction work -- showing up on time, doing what you're told, the language of tools, and rules of building. All with the goal of helping not just them but the broader community, too. TOM SERAFIN, SKILLPOINT ALLIANCE: We need new people coming in the pipeline, and one of the things that Construction Gateway does is that. Fills the pipeline with entry-level construction workers.
FOREMAN (on camera): People who we -- who absolutely need you to economically and physically rebuild America.
SERAFIN: Absolutely, absolutely.
FOREMAN (voice-over): The result? Close to 90 percent of Construction Gateway graduates who had little hope of a job before entering the program are employed within days of graduation. And they stay that way.
(On camera): How confident are you that you'll get employment once you leave here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hundred percent.
FOREMAN: It certainly worked for Sean. He has been on the job for seven years and is now a foreman on an electrical crew.
GOMEZ: This right here is the sole reason why I'm employed today.
FOREMAN: The program takes only a 100 students a year but that's a 100 doing good work. Good for them and good for their communities, too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: I've seen a lot of programs over the years that would say they train youth to do things. These are not all young people, as you could see some of them were older. And I was skeptical frankly about this program to go in, because a lot of times you see a lot of money being spent with no result.
The proof is in the pudding here, it's all those people actually getting jobs and keeping those jobs. And this seems to genuinely work, also because it works hand and glove with the construction industry here to make sure you don't just train them and then put them out there and say good luck. They say we trained you, now we're going to hook you up with somebody who wants you're skills. We'll make sure you follow through on it.
It really is a good program that's working here and one that can work for a lot of people which is the whole point on the "Building up America" series.
ROMANS: Great news Tom, really is that the construction industry is a little bit better off in Texas than it is in other parts of the country. So hopefully there will be some job opportunities there.
Texas economy doing better, I mean, the Texas economy is doing better than a lot of other places so maybe that means there's going to be some opportunities for those people. CHETRY: That was a great story, Tom, thanks.
FOREMAN: Yes.
CHETRY: I want to thank you for something else, because boy, when you put your money where your mouth is, you really deliver. We were ribbing Tom Foreman just so, you know, every day of the week about enjoying all the wonderful Austin barbecue and when he's going to bring us anything back. John demanded it and Christine and everybody and sure enough not only did we get wonderful and delicious smoked ribs --
ROMANS: This is pork (ph) which I think --
CHETRY: But I think these are but this is the big daddy, the big Kahuna (ph), I'm sorry, this is an entire slab of beef brisket sent from the Salt Lick (ph), barbecue like no other, drift with sauce -
FOREMAN: Yes, yes.
CHETRY: -- since 1967, this is all Tom Foreman.
ROMANS: And now that it has been on TV --
(CROSSTALK)
FOREMAN: You see, you rib us --
CHETRY: -- can you put it on your expense report is what I want to know?
FOREMAN: You rib us and we rib you. Yes, you've got some great barbecue.
CHETRY: This will feed the entire studio crew.
FOREMAN: Hey, I didn't miss out on this though. Yes, I know, well, we tried to take care of everybody. And isn't it ironic that John Roberts who kidded us all week, happened to take the day off, well, I hope he enjoys being at the beach while, you guys have the barbeque.
ROMANS: Too bad for him. We're going to spend it about the crew but you know it's a Friday and it is Lent.
ROMANS: That's right.
CHETRY: So that's going to eliminate some people, sorry guys. But we can make up the rest for it.
FOREMAN: Well, there's more for those who aren't --
CHETRY: Yes, it's a good day to be Jewish here on AMERICAN MORNING.
FOREMAN: Yes and hey, by the way, by the way I didn't get left out. Last night we went up for Italian, look at me enjoying my meal over at Innotech (ph) over here. I had a beautiful bowl or (INAUDIBLE) --
CHETRY: Look at you.
FOREMAN: I'm telling you, the restaurants here in Austin -- and I am a guy who's traveled a lot and been to a lot of places, the restaurants here in us Austin, bingo, they're getting way, way up there. Excellent stuff; when you come here make sure you have an appetite.
CHETRY: Yes and can we see that picture one more time and I hope you are able to expense that great juice you have in there. There you go.
ROMANS: Yes, and you know what Tom when Velshi -- when Velshi was on the bus last time he was saying that Ali had with her.
CHETRY: We're even and the beef jerky and he failed to really enjoy the cuisine. I'm glad to see that you've taken his advice and made sure you had a nice dinner every night.
FOREMAN: Yes, we're building up America, all right.
CHETRY: Yes, you sure are, that's right.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: That's right, one salt lick at a time. We appreciate it, thanks Tom.
ROMANS: Tom Foreman, thanks, Tom.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, powerhouse storms bringing more snow and more wind, and some people are describing it as a snow hurricane because that's how strong the winds are in some areas. We've got power outages, school closures, airport cancellations, travel delays on many roads. We're going to bring you the latest when we come back.
Forty-eight minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right. We've been tracking this wild storm. They are calling it the snow hurricane.
Our Rob Marciano is keeping track of all of this. You know, when they're calling it that I mean, it's because of the winds, right? But it's also you said this was such an odd movement to this system as well, almost like a hurricane.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, yes, it made a northwest turn, it got -- hit a roadblock out in the Atlantic Ocean and started drifting actually backwards towards the northwest. So the center of the low almost making landfall much like a hurricane. Well now, those winds weren't hurricane strength, there were some gusted that got close to that. And the thermo dynamics of this certainly nothing like a hurricane.
But if you live at the cloud canopy in Boise it certainly looks like an impressive storm. It is kind of -- it's reached its peak. It's kind of like a hall of fame ball player in the twilight of his career, still got some game and it's not giving up just yet.
Seventy-mile-an-hour wind gusts in Maine, 68-mile-an-hour wind gust in New Hampshire and in New York City, you're seeing 45-mile-an- hour wind gust. So that's certainly enough to do some damage and we have seen that.
Look at the new snow totals now. Tuxedo, New York 26.2, that's not far from the city. Now Central Park reporting 16.9 inches so it's feasible that New York City proper gets over 20 inches of snow before it's all said and done.
Some dry air tried to wrap into this thing and then that old ball players says, no. I'm not done yet. And we're seeing more snow developing around right there is where that low is.
It is right over Queens right now and it's going to slowly drift across Long Island Sound and off into New England and weaken as it does so. But it will take 24, 36 hours before it really gets out of here.
We have a number of warnings from North Carolina, all the way up to Maine; blizzard warnings, as a matter of fact through parts of the central Appalachians. High wind warnings for Washington and Baltimore; we shouldn't see a lot of snow but they're seeing some wind. I think we'll see another 4 to 8 inches today on top of what we have already seen, so this will be an epic snow maker at least for the tri-state area.
Well, if you cannot beat them, join them, or get an alpaca because they do really well on this type of weather. Eastern Pennsylvania where they breed these kind of animals -- Quakers do at least -- and they make great sweaters, so they look very, very comfortable -- Kiran and Christine.
CHETRY: Quaker town. Such a cute -- from great, great area of Pennsylvania. And the alpaca firm is very popular, and you know, you just save them. And they make wonderful sweaters and I heard they are friendly as heck.
MARCIANO: Very friendly and very happy in snow storms, it looks like. Just act -- think like an alpaca and you will all get through this just fine.
ROMANS: They don't have to be cleanly shaved right now if you're an alpaca though and be outside in the snow.
CHETRY: It's the time of the year where they have to let it go.
ROMANS: I don't know.
CHETRY: Let them keep their sweaters now, they need them.
MARCIANO: They do.
ROMANS: All right.
CHETRY: Thanks Rob.
ROMANS: Ok, we've got -- here is fantastic new study out there for all these who are into interval training. A week's worth of exercise in less than an hour? What is the secret?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. It's 56 minutes after the hour. Four minutes to go to the top of the hour.
That means it's time for your "A.M. House Call", stories about your health.
Women over 50 with fatty diets are raising their risk for a stroke, especially if they eat a lot of cookies and pastries --
CHETRY: She's not over 50?
ROMANS: No. Because they're -- and that looks more like a hamburger.
CHETRY: I think we had an elementary classroom.
ROMANS: Yes, exactly. But they're loaded with artery-clogging trans-fat. A federal study of more than 87,000 females -- so this is a big study -- it found those who ate the most fat were 44 percent more likely to suffer the most common form of stroke, put down your Danish, everyone, this morning.
CHETRY: And you've go the ribs from Tom Foreman (INAUDIBLE).
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: If you don't have any time for exercise, here is some good news. Take it with a grain of salt but you don't have to spend hours at the gym to get some results.
There are experts who are now saying that interval training can be twice as effective in some cases because a short burst of intense exercise sessions can actually pack a week's worth of workouts into less than an hour. These were sessions that were originally developed for Olympic athletes to help with endurance and help with heart rate, but new studies show that most of us can handle it. There you go.
ROMANS: Great. Let's do it right now.
CHETRY: You don't even need (INAUDIBLE) with toddlers, right? That's your endurance and your interval training. All right. Well, thanks so much for being with us on this "American Morning". We will see you back here on Monday.
Actually we will take a quick break. It is now two minutes until the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: And that's going to do it for us. We hope that if you are out there in the weather, if you live in the northeast today, stay warm and stay inside if you can. And thanks so much for being with us. We'll be back here on Monday.
ROMANS: That's right. Here is "NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips right now. Hi, Kyra.
